Today We See Why McConnell/The GOP Fought Impeachment Witnesses

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If you watched any of today’s testimony in front of the Select Committee investigating January 6 consider the “what if” had we seen these individuals (or others) testify during Trump’s second Impeachment.   The very thought of it back then terrified not just McConnell but Ted Cruz too.   Josh Hawley was too stupid to realize the full implications, but part of that adolescent brain of his probably realized it might make him look kind of bad.   Anyway, let’s consider this more fully.

It’s not like we learned a whole bunch of new details today.    We saw a great deal unfold in real time on TV, and in the hours and few days afterwards we got plenty of close-up looks.  However, today we have had a powerful reminder of two things.   First, just how desperate the fight was that day and the personal costs to those who fought to protect the Congress and our Constitution.    But second, we learned about brave and self-sacrificing decisions made in the heat of the moment that probably prevented the unthinkable – members of Congress and even the Vice-President being hauled out of the building to be beaten and perhaps even executed.   In the end only one person defending the Capitol used their firearm, but in retrospect I believe in that specific instance it was both justified and tactically sound both in that particular spot and from an overall (for the entire Capitol) perspective.   There were plenty of other situations where officers had every justification to shoot to defend themselves but not doing so was the correct decision despite the personal consequences they faced – and by consequences being crippling beatings or being murdered – perhaps with their own weapon.   Had so many of those defending the Capitol used their firearms, there is no doubt in my mind most would have been killed and as a result our elected officials and their staff would have been too.

You will never, EVER convince me that in addition to caches of firearms stashed just outside as the treasonous mob grew to critical mass and they could be slipped into position, but that plenty of the traitors inside were armed not just with clubs, stun guns, chemical weapons and other makeshift weapons but actual firearms.

In the end only one of he rioters was shot.   I’m convinced that only the fact there were too many people between key members of the attackers and the law enforcement officers on the other side of the barrier was the reason that a lot of shooting and killing didn’t break out at that spot.   But I’m quite certain that the plan (and yes, there was an overall plan) was to provoke widespread use of firearms by those defending the Capitol, therefore “justifying” the rioters use of their own firearms.

So, while we only saw four Capitol and DC police testify today their stories are the same as hundreds of others.   And keep in mind roughly one hundred forty wound up at hospitals being treated for severe injuries!   Some were even dragged away out of police lines and subjected to horrific beatings.   Again, keep in mind it cost some of their colleagues their lives.   Yes, as DC Metro Police Officer Fannone testified using his weapon would have been futile.   He already figured there was a high likelihood he’d wind up dead at the hands of the mob, but it would be a certainty if he started shooting.   And worse, he knew it would incite far worse actions from a mass of rioters that had he and his colleagues greatly outnumbered.

That, and other testimony over the course of several hours was powerful even if we’d heard so much of it, and seen so many of the videos of events before.

Imagine if we’d seen all that during Trump’s second Impeachment Trial!

In the initial post hearing news stuff Chuck Todd and Andrea Mitchell discussed this very question.   It was literally asked if, had there been such testimony only seven Republicans would have voted to convict Trump.    I can easily imagine the House Manager’s summation reminding us of Adam Schiff’s warning during his own summation in the first Impeachment, and reminding them of the testimony of what the four witnesses we heard today (and/or others) – noting that Schiff’s prediction had come true and threated every Senator’s very life, and even for so many that of some of their loved ones who happened to be present that day.

It’s exactly the kind of thing McConnell and others feared happening.   Trump may have loved the thought of his lawyers ripping into these witnesses but even they knew how bad that would be.   The only answer was to delay a second Impeachment as long as possible, and then to limit it’s scope in exchange for allowing a trial to begin at all.   It’s worth remembering that for at least a week, and in some cases longer a lot of Republicans in not just the House but also the Senate were still shaken by what they had been through.   Seeing testimony like this, I for one think that more than only seven Republican Senators would have voted to convict had they been confronted with it back then when Trump’s hold on their Party was shaken for that ever so brief moment in time.   Before the GOP spin machine could get into gear and manufacture their counter-narrative, a Trumpian “don’t believe your lying eyes” campaign.

McConnell and the few wise (if despicable and evil) minds in the GOP knew it would be game over had there been witness testimony like this during the second Impeachment.   I don’t think McConnell would have shed a single tear over Trump being dragged out of the WH and instead of a last ride on the Presidential Aircraft instead gone down to FL in the back of a C-130.   Hell, he probably like the idea.   But he also knew that having taken the stance of tossing Trump out on his ass the GOP would have to engage in some serious self-reckoning AND house cleaning.   It would mean a setback for the GOP for at least one election cycle and he simply wasn’t going to allow that.

He needed time.   Time to maneuver.  Desperately.   And allowing even just three or four of the kind of witnesses we saw today would have denied him and the GOP of that time which they’ve put to use with a vengeance.

I hope that the brief exchange I saw on MSNBC about what impact today’s testimony would have made on Trump’s second Impeachment trial gets asked over and over again.   I sure as hell plan to call out my two GOP Senators on this point later today!

 

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